My own meta game involves cheating heavily to try out many things while having extremely limited gaming time.
Then flying around lazily ( and option that works well as I can afford a fast and resistant ship due to cheating) to find the perfect system to screen capture.
Finally letting the game run 1-2 nights to see how a universe evolve. Possibly with save games and modifying some start conditions (again enabled by heavy cheating, as to impact on the fate of universe you need to carry some weight). So basically investigating long term AI behavior and/or historical generation LOD.

Did I mention I favor having extensive ways to cheat - I.e. grant myself money/techs/ships/... - in order to explore the game more freely? That's why the nodal interface and its options to edit game object makes me so happy...

CSE wrote:My own meta game involves cheating heavily to try out many things while having extremely limited gaming time.
Then flying around lazily ( and option that works well as I can afford a fast and resistant ship due to cheating) to find the perfect system to screen capture.
Finally letting the game run 1-2 nights to see how a universe evolve. Possibly with save games and modifying some start conditions (again enabled by heavy cheating, as to impact on the fate of universe you need to carry some weight). So basically investigating long term AI behavior and/or historical generation LOD.

Did I mention I favor having extensive ways to cheat - I.e. grant myself money/techs/ships/... - in order to explore the game more freely? That's why the nodal interface and its options to edit game object makes me so happy...

So, let me first preface and say that this is shaping up to be a single player EVE, in the sense that the underlying simulation has the scope and persistence of EVE, but instead of having to deal with thousands of people who range from friendly to outright cantankerous, it's just you as the sole orchestrator of shenanigans.

With that in mind, what will your play styles be? I'm interested. I'll start with my dreams for Limit Theory, which I hope is possible by the time of release.
I imagine myself starting off as a humble miner, with barely a few credits in his pocket, a small ship and a extraction laser to boot. My first forays into the world will be rough, dangerous, and costly. But eventually, I see myself moving up into larger miners and haulers before finally establishing my very first mining corporation. This is where my dream truly begins. I expect to setup trade routes, build factories to supplant my mining fleet with guardian AI that will safeguard the ore and refined minerals to starbases across the universe. I will manipulate the market economics to grant me the most of amount of credits in the least amount of time, I will crash markets and let them soar, because the little seed planted long ago is now germinating; but it's not ready yet, no.

Soon, rival corporations will begin targeting my operations. They will attempt to destabilize me. I will see alliances form and wars reach the doors of my empire. Now the seed has become a small shrub, a bud is forming. With the wealth I've amassed, I can finally set my dream in motion. I will create shell corporations and shell factions. They will receive funding from me, but will target my own ships to buy favors with alliances across the sectors. They will vi for blood and cheer to see my empire burn to the ground, war has passed through the doors of my empire; it's in my house, it's hunting and I am ready.

In this time, I will have amassed a massive fleet in thousands. I will push the shell factions and corporations to bring rival factions and their fleets to my system. I will have my grand battle, no planet, no ring, no asteroid belt will be safe from conflict. It will be a fight that will make its way into the history of the universe.

And I, I will park my ship, cloaked, on a nice asteroid near the biggest battle. I will grab my Oculus Rift, a nice cool drink; kick back my legs, relax and enjoy the show.

I imagine that I will take the fastest possible root (up to and including a modded start. I really have no interest in flying ships manually) to get myself out of the little dinky fighter or whatever the start ship will be and get into a larger vessel such as a destroyer or cruiser. I will then attempt to amass wealth providing security services, pirate hunting, privateering and the like, expanding my securities operations with more ships until I can afford my own small stations. I will then begin to muscle out the competition in my selected field until I have ruthlessly hijacked the security market in my local area. Once I have the big stick in the neighborhood I hope to jack up my prices and force peaceful companies to pay me protection money whether they need it or not. All the while I will have explorer ships mapping out the surrounding systems and finding other populated sectors that I can have my puppet production companies trade with, my fleets securing frontier space (the high seas if you will) and building warp rail networks in their wake like the Roman legions of the past, facilitating trade. Any belligerent terrorist factions that dare oppose my aspirations for empire will be crushed like space flies. With the profits from taxation and protection money I will start my own research and development programs in private places, building a war machine to spread my influence as far as I can for an empire not expanding is an empire doomed to collapse.

The victorious strategist only seeks battle
After the victory has been won
Whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights
And afterwards looks for victory

Let's see.
I'll do the odd mining and whatever earns money, trying to outfit a ship for exploration. And then I'll try to see as much from mr. Parnell's universe as I can
After that, LT is very likely to become the first game I try to write mods for.

After the fiasco with ED I am going to pull a Thomas, when I see the game release, then I will make my plans, so far no need for me to make plans for something that is still in the works, when the product is out, I will make plenty of plans.

Once I get established a bit I will get the fleet going and empire build. I dream of taking a tight but highly equipped fleet out into the unknown, finding a desolate space with local resources and an unpopulated planet which I will colonise. Build the colonies/stations/factories/refineries/defences/rails/whatever is needed and managing that until I am happy - then delegate NPCs to take over and I'm off with the "explore fleet" to do same again where good trade routes can be established between my "planets", along with any other nearby planets/hubs. (This is why I wanted planetary ownership from the beginning!)

I doubt I will be overly aggressive (unless NPC is seriously in my way), so if NPC leave me and my interests alone I will be fine with them, I look forward to just sitting back and watching them! But if they come at me then I will take great delight in seeing their demise.

For me, the operational and strategic levels seem the most interesting, while the tactical level seems more immersive. I think in the short term I would like personal exploration and trading, but settle into operations in the long term.